Even after dozens of hours with “No Man’s Sky,” I still can’t wrap my head around the game's scope. In case you haven’t been witness to the steady stream of hype building over the last three years, “No Man’s Sky” is space exploration game that boasts a mind-melting 18.4 quintillion planets to explore, many of which rival the size of Earth. To put things into perspective, landing on each planet for one second would take 484 billion years. Crazy, huh? But is “No Man’s Sky” a case of quantity over quality? The answer is complicated.

When you initially start the game, be prepared for some confusion. "No Man's Sky" offers little-to-no tutorial, so you'll need to figure out inventory management, mining, and basic controls like sprinting. On one hand, it's nice that the game doesn't hold your hand as so many other games do, but on the other, the lack of clear instructions left me befuddled and frustrated for a few minutes.

Advertisement

Once you get up and running, you'll be thrown into the massive galaxy and set loose to explore. Each of the planets feature different, randomly generated qualities and many are brimming with unique, randomized creatures. As a result, the first few hours of "No Man's Sky" are nothing short of magical. The game's size is incomprehensible and the sheer number of possibilities is intoxicating. I wanted to explore every planet, see every animal, and build the most incredible starship possible. At first, the game didn't disappoint.

During my interstellar travels, I encountered gigantic floating crabs with creepy tendrils, bipedal, T-Rex-like mammals and small, squirmy roach slugs. I landed on ice and volcanic planets, explored lush and barren environments, and even toured some small moons.

For the first 10 hours, my excitement was at an all-time high. But soon, I began to notice cracks in the facade. The creatures, as unique as they once seemed, started to share the same qualities and behaved in exactly the same, brain dead way. Even the planets themselves started to feel far too similar. Each new star system I visited gave me an overwhelming sense of deja vu that I still haven't been able to shake.

The been-there, done-that feeling quickly curbed my desire to progress. After all, why upgrade my starship just to get to a similar planet? Why modify my weapon if I'm battling the same sentinel drones over and over and over? Why visit a space station when the layout will be identical to the dozens I've already visited? In the beginning, it was my overwhelming sense of curiosity that propelled me forward. Without it, I was simply drifting through space, uninterested in moving on.

The problem is exacerbated by a fundamentally underwhelming gameplay loop. The whole game goes something like this-- mine resources to build items, use those items to mine more efficiently, use the new mined resources to build better items. Now repeat that process hundreds of times, throw in some animal scanning and blueprint collecting and you have a pretty good idea of what makes "No Man's Sky" tick. In essence, you’re grinding to grind more in the future with no end in sight. A massive universe is only as good as the level of interactivity and options contained within and "No Man's Sky's" game loop makes the universe feel far too small, limited, and empty.

There's a thin story lurking on the edges of "No Man's Sky" for those curious enough to look for it. Much of the loose narrative is told through the terminals that can be found on most planets and they tell an interesting tale. I won't ruin the surprise, but the terminals ask some large questions about the the purpose and sentience of the drones patrolling the Galaxy, a strange sickness that seems to infect the scribes behind the notes, the afterlife and more. The terminals are both creepy and interesting, and I found myself seeking them out whenever possible. The well-written anecdotes provide a nice insight into the massive universe, even if they don't push the game forward in any meaningful capacity.

The game performs better than expected on the PS4, even if it's only running at 30 frames per second. There's some generous pop-in, especially when entering the atmosphere of a new planet, but that's to be expected, especially at this scale. I did notice a number of frame rate dips, but those were few and far between, and I was consistently impressed with the game's performance. Things on the PC are a very different story.

The game's aesthetic is also undeniably cool. The pastel colors, boxy ship designs, basic computer terminals and simple geometry offer an attractive 1970s sci-fi feel that is sure to please purists. The look shines when visiting new planets, which cast the same faded hues over the landscape.

Even after playing "No Man's Sky" for dozens of hours, I'm torn. The game is a technical marvel that tapped into my curiosity and desire for exploration in a way that no game has before. For more than 10 hours, I was infatuated with its size and scale and found myself hopelessly hooked. Unfortunately, those feelings dissipated way too soon and I was left with an above-average game and loads of wasted potential. Still, those initial hours were worth the price of admission, if only for the experience.